We would be responsible for choosing candidates

David Melding AM

The Conservatives came within hundreds of votes of winning back the seat of Monmouth, but their standing in the rest of Wales remains at an all-time low.

Senior Tory party figures have complained the party centrally ignored Welsh Tory views on how the campaign should have been run here.

Now, on the day Welsh party leaders officially begin their post-mortem of the election performance, Mr Melding is proposing radical change - a separate Welsh Conservative party.

The re-branding may be seen as a radical step in some quarters, but Mr Melding believes it is essential for the party to send out the right "grass roots" message to Welsh voters.

David Melding AM: Party shake-up

"It would be called the Welsh Conservative party, part of the UK Conservative movement, but we'd be responsible for choosing candidates etc - which would give a signal we're an indigenous Welsh party."

Mr Melding added that if the party failed to adapt then he and his fellow Tory AMs could be the next casualties, in the 2003 assembly elections.

But, speaking on BBC Radio Cymru's Post Cynta programme, Glyn Lewis, chairman of the north Wales Tories, said he felt that the party had reformed in recent years.

He said he believed there was no need for further change.

Also he denied there was a split within the party.

Instead, he insisted that the Tories were united, and said that the majority would not support Mr Melding and his proposals.